Our Second House

We moved into this house back in 2010 and moved out halfway through 2013 after making a pretty decent amount of changes (a house in our dream neighborhood popped up and we jumped on it like a velociraptor). But we loved this ranch, and a ton happened over the years we spent here (three Christmases, three birthday parties for Clara, writing and shooting our entire book, watching Clara take her first steps and say her first words). So it was definitely bittersweet to leave. Oh and here are a few other links that might help you get your bearings: a paint color breakdown & a video tour.

***The Front Yard ***

This is the exterior as it looked when we bought the house, giant house-blocking magnolia and all:

This room was a formal living room with a dining room behind those built-ins when we first saw this house, but we converted the formal living room into an entryway/dining room by adding a huge opening on the left wall that leads into the kitchen. And the back room that was once the dining room became our home office thanks to the addition of a big built-in desk.

Here’s the sink nook as it looked when we first moved in. It’s on the far side of the bedroom (with a shower and a toilet in a room to the right and a walk-in closet to the left). It was definitely a challenge to make a sink that’s visible from the bed feel integrated (let alone romantic) but we love a challenge…

Here’s the sink nook after we removed the bi-fold doors, demo’d the backsplash around the sink (to make it look more like a piece of furniture and less bathroom-y) and switched out that awkward medicine cabinet to the right of the sink (neck-cramp anyone?) for a mirror that hangs right over the window. We also upgraded the knobs with $2 finds from Hobby Lobby.

*** The Master Bathroom***

Here’s the master bathroom when we moved in. We immediately hung an extra long shower curtain to add height and lighten things up in this beige-on-beige room, but then we stalled for about 15 months.

Here’s the master bathroom after we did a bunch of little upgrades (from painting the trim and the walls to replacing the light, toilet, some border tile, and frosting the window).

***The Back Hallway***

Here’s the back hallway that leads to all the bedrooms except for the master before we attacked it (although we did hang those photos in the frame hallway):

Here’s the hall bath that’s back near the other three bedrooms. We loved that it was so similar to the original full bath in our first house (and the tile was luckily in much better shape).

Here’s the hall bathroom when we finished (we remembered to white balance the camera this time, hence the brighter pic). First we removed the weird off-centered bar under the window, added some window trim for balance, and raised the shower curtain for some extra drama and height. Then we painted the walls, hung art, framed out the mirror, DIYed a window shade, and added some accessories (more details on those projects here). Our total budget for this room’s upgrade was just $168.

We also updated Clara’s closet, which was previously concealed by a basic bi-fold door.

Here’s Clara’s closet after turning it into a reading nook by removing the bi-folds, hanging a homemade curtain, painting and stamping the walls with metallic paint (and a potato), and bringing in books & pillows to create a little reading nook:

*** The Playroom***

Here’s the middle bedroom as it looked when we moved in:

And here’s the playroom after we got some fun bedding, made curtains, found a dresser on craigslist, grabbed a rug from an online sale, hung some personal art, and added some thrift store bird cages for 3D interest (more on all of that here). We always thought painting the ceiling a bright color would have been fun (a soft coral? sky blue?) but just couldn’t squeeze it in…

*** The Guest Bedroom***

Here’s the guest bedroom that was looking pretty generic when we first moved in:

And here’s the quirky little yellow guest bathroom that was attached to the guest bedroom. We decided to work with the vintage tile since it was in great shape and actually charmed us after living with it for a while, but to lose the dated and dingy look.

Here’s the guest room after we upgraded the light fixture, painted the walls and trim, made a window treatment, hung some art, painted the mirror darker, and added some fun accessories (you can find more details on all of that here).

*** The Laundry Room***

And here’s the little laundry room (it’s just 3.5′ wide!) that we couldn’t wait to perk up when we moved in: